quilt plans and making lists

A blogging friend who I have recently met and began following at  A Left Handed Quilter posed an interesting question today.  (Her alter ego Quilter BOB has separate blog and has some even more takes on quilting!!  Some that I agree with---a lot!  But I digress.......)

Anyway she asked

If you KNEW that you had only one more day before you died and in that day you could make one more quilt, what quilt would you make?

She named several styles of quilts and oh, there were some good ones to chose from!  I don't think I am what you would consider a MODERN quilter but the reasons/rants about that will wait for another day.  Scrappy, Traditional, more my speed really.

She also wondered if you would take that day to finish up a UFO or start something new.  I thought about it for a bit.  Actually I think about it a lot---no, not the only having one more day to live part but what I want to work on next.  I especially ponder this when I am working something like binding.  (The Row QOV is done but does not look appreciably different than it did  the last time I posted it on the blog but you might check the 2012 finishes for a better picture of it)

 So, even though I stated that I had three bed quilts that I have started and would like to see completed,  vaguely, "sometime this year"  (Popsicle Sticks, My Sunshine and Cheap Trick/Two of a Kind) I selected TWO different projects.  I guess I would have to beg for another day, LOL.

My choice would be to complete my Christmas JOY quilt begun with the Collinsville Rowers as a pass-around quilt. I fell in love with this quilt featured as a series quilt in the Fons and Porter "Love of Quilting" magazine the first time I saw it.  I guess it was quite a popular pattern and they sold out of the magazines it was in as they now sell the pattern as a booklet. Poinsettia row back in Sept. 2007 and then sent it on its merry way.  We had a retreat the following August and the rows were revealed then.  I take it out every now and again but so far it has not been completed.  Basically I need to find a nice Christmas red and a cream or white to make the checkerboard bits between the row elements.

And my other choice would be to make my version of Farmer's Wife Sampler.  I have been living with this quilt in my head for about 6 weeks or more.  I blogged about it in THIS post.

I have been studying the materials from Marti Michell that would allow me to convert the templates from the book into her perfect patchwork sets.  I have been editing out superfluous lines in case I want to foundation piece some of the blocks.  I have been drawing up more blocks in EQ from other sources to use them in my quilt.  I have tinkered with the layout incessantly and will most likely tinker some more.  I have spent a lot of time in BlockBase picking out blocks that I feel look better on point than in the original.  I have dumped the blocks that I would have no interest in making at 12 inches let alone 6 inches as the sampler calls for----too many pieces for me!   I have looking at what other bloggers have done and viewing all kinds of blocks on The Farmer's Wife Quilt-a-long on Flickr.  I have joined a yahoo group to get other's input as to how THEY are proceeding with this quilt.  I have considered what fabrics I might use, over and over again.  I have my notebook set up with printouts and sheet protectors ready to go.    I am ready, mentally anyway.

Now I am NOT saying that it will look exactly like this----it is a sketch and what I will follow for the layout PROBABLY.   The quilt requires 111 blocks and I have 176 blocks in my EQ sketchbooks----some are already substitutes for the ones I didn't bother drawing up.  Some others, I like a lot better.   I see a few more that will NOT make the cut or be moved at the very least.   I love baskets and want to include some basket fabrics that my mom, Maggie and Sheila sent me so a few more of them will show up.  I DO like the distribution of color more of less, so may stick to that when actually making the blocks or closely anyway.

As much as I love 30's prints I keep coming back to scrappy.  I could go with Civil War or earlier 1800's repros but I don't think it will work for this.  I have dreams of some day doing a Dear Jane too---start at 6 inch and work down to 4.5 inch??   I do not care for the quilt on the cover----not my palette at all.  I can use my stash for the most part but will probably need some more background lights and blenders but not so dark that I can figure out what to use for sashing.  The sketch is also making it look like I don't have any sashing between the blocks until you blow it up bigger. In the drawing I had three tones of that taupey, golden brown going on.  That part is odd as well since I don't normally care for browns  I tried switching out to shades of green but there is a good bit of green in the blocks so that probably won't work either.  Blue would be out for the same reason.

So back to what my blogging friend asked----if I consider it that important to me, what is stopping me from getting started on this???  Uh, maybe that pile of pro bono quilts in my bedroom and the fact that I need to straighten up the sewing room before I can cut or press or make more of a mess by pulling out fabric bins.    For now, top of the list for me!   There are 12 quilts in there and 10 are mine, 2 are group members.  I make a promise now that once I get say 3 of thm quilted, I will at least cut out the 1st 10 blocks and get started on it anyway.  That would be a terrific reward project.   It will be on-going---many people aim for making two a week and figure on a year long journey.

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Followup notes:
My New Balance 606's seem to be working out okay.  Even though I am not diabetic or circulatory impaired (thank heavens!) I got two pair of the socks to try out because they felt a bit thicker than the others.  A large bandaid to my heels is padding the still tender area so that helped too.   Still at 4 laps every other day but I think by Monday I am going to go 5 days out of 7.  It is just 1.1 miles and I don't feel taxed by the activity.  See how 3 days in a row goes first.

The binding on the Row QOV is done as yesterday afternoon.  It does not look appreciably different than it did the last time I posted it on the blog but you might check the 2012 finishes tab for a better picture of it.  I laundered it to get rid of the cat hair and it crinkled up beautifully.  I need to find out what kind of batting the quilt is using as I really like it.  It got a little fluffy around the edges of the quilt after I was done man handling it quilting it---maybe some sort of bonded cotton??

Supposedly there is some rain on the way in this evening.  We got a little over a half inch night before last but remain about 5 inches behind on our rain fall totals for the year.   We are in the 70's today with all that cloud cover and that kept it pleasant for walking.  Trust me, I am not complaining about that after the recent spell of 90's and blazing sun days.  So far the box fans and over head fans are keeping things comfortable in here.  Or at least it is until I decide to do something "stupid" like clean or dust!

I feel like a bit of a jinx today anyway----cleaning might be injurious to my health, at the rate I was going.  Mr. Fix-it told me I was just full of good news when I reported almost simultaneously that 1)  my right turn signal was going off like a hazard light does again and not working on the exterior of the car  2)  the blind I had just raised shirred off completely at the header on two of the three strings.    Fortunately it was just a bulb on the car and Cobb's didn't charge him for it.  The blind?  He bought the wrong size first and then we had to discuss whether the one other the adjacent window was alabaster or white. At my insistence, he got white and it IS a bit lighter in tone.  Why would I have approved alabaster when white was really cream and alabaster was overly tan colored??  Who names these things such weird colors anyway and why do we let them get away with it?  It is up and not going back.  I accept full responsibility for the color variance.  Now remind me what I said when the other one falls down, LOL.

Well, somehow I don't think my sewing room is going to get tidied up or bathroom any cleaner with me pecking on the keyboard.   Thanks for stopping by-------